Monday 12 May 2008

Why I Am Not Religious

In various attempts to discredit atheists, religious people have a tendency to make sweeping statements that contain very little, if any, truth in them. I myself have been told many times that the only reason I'm an atheist is due to my "arrogance", my "ego", or my "unwillingness to know the truth". So to prevent this, I want to address why I'm an atheist, so angry theists might have the decency to stop being so condescending, and stop assuming they know more about my beliefs than I do.

A few opening points to acknowledge initially;
1 - Nobody is born with an innate idea of God, therefore
everyone is born an atheist.
2 - The only thing that affects whether or not we believe in God is firstly our family, and secondly our society.

The first criticism atheists get is that we, like the many victims of theological indoctrination, have merely been subjected to atheism from an early age, poisoned against Religion as a child and therefore are too narrow minded to ever accept the idea of God.
Here's my story: My family is a very traditional, British, (and much to my embarrassment) predominately conservative, Roman Catholic family. Despite this, I - a particularly liberal atheist - was very much encouraged throughout my childhood to think for myself. And why did a conservative Christian family
allow themselves to raise an atheist son? Because my parents were good parents, and forcing your child to follow your own religious beliefs is child abuse.

The second criticism atheists get is that we have some personal vendetta against religion, and we are self-righteously riling against the pious and devotedly theistic members of society to fulfil our own biased agenda. To this, as I have already demonstrated, I can only say that I have no personal reason to dislike religion. In fact, my tolerant upbringing in the hands of a group of devoted Catholics is unrivalled as a pro-religion experience. No oppressive family members ostracising me for my heathen beliefs to get my knickers in a twist about here; no personal reason for me to be anything other than tolerant or even embracing of organised religion.

The third criticism is that we are merely ignorant of religion, and that if we just
knew more about it we would simply crumble under the weight of all the evidence and accept that our peccant atheist lifestyles are based on a lack of morals and false evidence.
The truth is that most atheists are very much interested in theology. I myself have been to many church services, spoken to Catholic and Protestant Christians and priests and Evangelicals, and Creationists...one of my oldest and closest friends is a Muslim, his family is Muslim and I've spoken extensively to them all regarding Islam, I've explored religious philosophies of the Far East as well as some of the peculiar Hindu denominations...my life has always been greatly influenced by and involved with religion. I've always had good reason to explore my own spiritual side, and have
never rejected the idea of a God before knowing about what I was rejecting beforehand. But of course I have never claimed to know that there is no God. By his very nature, God is unfalsifiable. Atheism doesn't mean you know there isn't a God, just that you believe there isn't one. If you can offer me a tangible, empirical proof of God, be it of Yahweh, Allah, or Zeus for all I care; be my guest.

A fourth criticism is that atheists who oppose organised religion are no better than the hate-filled extremists they harp on about. That by speaking out against religion you are spreading hatred.
Though I agree that it is a slippery slope; (take a look at how hatred for Islam has had unjust effects on majority views on asylum seekers and immigration) I - and I can only speak for myself - don't
hate anyone just because of their religion. Its the archaic ideology and the effects that has on our society that I hate. Organised religion holds a society back. It restricts the natural evolution of morals, and thus is responsible for an immeasurable amount of oppression and hatred throughout history. Want proof of how it still happens today? Look at the Christian campaigns against homosexuality, just like how Christians used the Bible to oppose the progression of women's rights 100 years ago, or to justify slavery 150 years ago. Deeply religious countries in the Middle East subject their citizens to such intense backwards intolerance because of their archaic religion holding their society back; which is why so many desperate people seek asylum in the West in the first place.

The obvious conclusion to this 4th criticism is that speaking out against something you believe to be wrong, is spreading hatred against those that believe in it. Which is simply a ludicrous proposition. Religious people are so used to their beliefs being treated with such unchallengeable respect that they throw their toys out of the pram whenever an atheist says "Hold on a minute, what you're saying is a bit unfair."

If you want to follow an archaic religion that has
no place in the 21st century, be my guest. Go ahead. It's when you people start enforcing your fucked up beliefs on the rest of us, and start not just spreading prejudice against, but actively discriminating against those that you believe to not comply with your divine moral code that you're going to start hearing people speaking out against you. No matter how many of you believe it, and no matter how loud you want to shout about it, there's always going to be someone there to say to you "Wait, this isn't right."

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

FINALLY! you have a blog.

Anonymous said...

bookmarked. i'm a subscriber of your videos and well definitely read your blog.

A for Agnostic Fundamentalist said...

Well said.

A4A

Liane said...

Hoorah! Tell it like it is. Am a fan of yours and Pat Condell. Keep up the good work, eventually people might realise why religion was 'invented' i.e., to keep the masses from rioting when the monarchs took the land from the people and wanted them to fight in unsubstantiated wars, shall I go on! It was always 'the will of God', funny that!

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry to say that most of this article, especially the part about "everyone is born athiest," is very wrong and/or simply opinion.

before anyone calls themselves or anyone else athiest, they should first research the term.

An athiest chooses not to believe in God or gods the same way a thiest chooses to believe in gods/God.

An agnostic holds no particular view, so at birth your most likely agnostic not an athiest.

Secondly, I completely disagree with the mass stereotyping of this article. I find it hypocritical. He claims that "Christains" stereotype but then puts them all in one group. Does that make sense?

I am a Christian but i do not crusade against homosexuals. In fact, I have homosexual friends. Some churches even marry homosexuals.

But homosexuality is just one of the many issues that Chritians are split on. If he doesn't want the term athiest to be oversimplified and misunderstood than he should not over simplify the diversity of other methods of thinking such as Christianity.

Anonymous said...

Atheism is like not being interesting in baseball.
And that, in itself, is not a form of baseball.

A.W. said...

@ anonymous - 21 May 2008 03:45

I specifically made the distinction between individuals and their ideology.

You can't deny your religion's negative influence on society throughout history. I'm not saying YOU used the Bible to justify slavery 150 years ago. I know a lot of great, tolerant Christians too - what's your point? Nobody's denying there are great Christians. What I am denying however is that religion's role on society has been largely detrimental, rather than beneficial. And I can prove it.

Also, your first criticism - that lacking a belief in God is somehow a belief in itself - is equally just YOUR opinion, and by a great many people's standards wrong. You're assuming your own infallibility whilst criticising me for doing the same.

Unknown said...

there is one thing you have incorect in the last blog...religion has been the foundation of all moral behavior since the dawn of civilization.right wrong or indifferent it has formed the legal foundation for most western countries as well.
may i ask on what do you base you morals?
how do you decide for yourself what is wrong or right?